Our Footprint
We’ve established that your carbon dioxide footprint is the what contributes most significantly to climate change. How do we quantify it? Carbon footprints are partitioned into three buckets:
Scope 1; e.g. your direct carbon footprint that results from burning gasoline or natural gas.
Scope 2; e.g. your indirect footprint from the carbon dioxide emitted through the production of electricity you use.
Scope 3; e.g. your indirect footprint from all the carbon dioxide produced through the supply chain of products you buy.
Scope 1 and 2 emissions are most easily quantified, so that’s where we started with our project. We’re not quite carbon neutral yet, but we have significantly cut our emissions by doing the following:
Driving: eliminate driving as much as possible. I now walk / bike to work everyday, and aside from the improved health and mental focus, it takes a serious chunk out of your carbon footprint. I’ve only driven 4,000 miles in the past year, which amounts to 14,000 pounds of CO2 conserved.
Other small changes in your lifestyle can lead to large carbon footprint savings, such as: taking shorter showers, keeping the thermostat just a couple degrees up or down (depending on the season), eating one more vegetarian meal per week, small changes to your driving habits, the types of products you buy at the supermarket, among others.
As a result, our team now has an average carbon footprint of 9.2 tons per year, which is just a hair above 50% the U.S. average. See what you can do using our favorite carbon footprint calculator at Nature.org.
